the poet in you

It's always fun to stumble upon an undiscovered blog, especially one with a prolific author. I've been hot on the tail of Book Hunter's Holiday and am treated with near daily posts. This blogger gives her account of bookselling from beginning to end; how and why she became interested in book selling, the steps she took to familiarize herself with the business, she links to good resources and offers valuable tips to others with shared interests. Her strength is definitely research. It seems that I glean something from each of her posts.

I've been enjoying online bookselling for a few years now and pretty much stick to general non-fiction. The Book Hunter is a novice antiquarian bookseller which to me is an altogether different animal. "Antiquarian bookseller" has an air of erudition and authority. Me? I don't claim to be an authority on anything. I can't even seem to find a niche in general non-fiction. I see sellers who specialize in dogs, photography, history, spirituality, you name it, someone will specialize in the subject and they'll seem to have an endless supply of used books on their subject. I plod along, going to booksales, picking what I feel has good resale value and is pretty narrow in scope. It seems books on very specific interests do much better than those that are more general.

Almost every month has been better than the last until recently. I don't know what the reason for the slow down in sales is and it makes me a little nervous. The Frantic inside of me wonders how long I can ask my husband to live among a maze of books that are sitting idle and should I just unload it all on ebay maybe, just throw in the rag and "get real" and muddle through a 40 hour work week like everyone else. I wonder to myself, "My god, how many online used booksellers can there be?" everytime I see a Just Launched icon on Amazon Marketplace. I'm not much of a message board person, I don't get on the community bookseller boards and gripe. The way I figure it is that if you've got time to gripe, you've got time to list books and in the end, that's what I choose. I just dig in and work at my bookselling, but when I come up for air it's nice to know that there are others that share the same ups and downs as myself. That is, I suppose, how Book Hunter's Holiday became a nice little place to hide out from time to time.

It's a fairly cool day here in Austin. The weatherman says it will stay in the 50's today with winds, a welcome change if you ask me. It's easy to acclimate to the mild 80's that we've been enjoying this last week. But today I'll wear a sweater as I trot off to work in a few minutes.

My head is still reeling from my very good luck while book scouting yesterday. I found a slew of decently valued books, someone had just donated their personal library. I picked up 45 new titles, all for $10. I'm debating whether or not to do a purge of old and/or lower priced books or just to keep everything as it is. I'll have time to mull that over at work. Everyone cancels their veterinary appointments when it rains. No one wants a wet nervous dog riding in their car it seems.

More later.

Okay, hang on to your hats. I have found the Holy Grail Of Bran Muffin Recipes. Yes, I know, you thought it couldn't be done. I admit, I too had my doubts. But I am here to tell you, to share with you, the very satisfying end result of my quest.

The first step of my journey started with the need and hellbent determination to get more fiber into my diet. The motivator was muffins and the question that I found myself asking over and over again was, "Are bran muffins just inherently disgusting? Who enjoys bran muffins? Are bran muffin eaters really just hippie haggis eaters exchanging one vile culinary concoction for another?" and then the tiniest, most faraway voice, like the littlest lost orphan at the bottom of a dry well eeked, "But they're good for you".

So it started. First I looked and looked through cookbooks. I've hung on to a few titles from the '70's. I even have newer cookbooks and hello 21st century, I have my iBook at my disposal wherever I go. So I tipped my toes into the pool of muffin recipes and made a quite forgetable little number a few months back. Then I was strolling the health section of my local mega supermart and found a bran muffin mix. I have to say, it had potential. And then, just as life would have it, when I wasn't hunting down the elusive Delectable Bran Muffin, there it was.

I was comparing flaxseed products. Why is one $6 and another $3 and what's the diff between the flaxseed and the meal? Organic or not to be organic? Meal has a smidgen less fiber, why come for? And then, there it was, a bran/flax muffin recipe pasted on the back of my flaxmeal package. And it sounded so good and could I improve upon it? Why I think so! *So $40 and 2 hours later and I am in bran muffin nirvana. I actually like these. I love them. There is flaxmeal and bran inside and they're still yummy and I want to give everyone a chance to give their colons a great big fine how do you do and thank you for all you've done for me these many years. So turn your printers on and save this recipe for your recipe folder.

Holy Shit Grail Bran Muffins Ingredients

1 1/2 C. Unbleached White Flour

3/4 C. Flaxseed Meal

3/4 C. Oat Bran

1 C. Brown Sugar

2 tsp. Baking Soda

1 tsp. Baking Powder

1/2 tsp. Salt

2 tsp. Cinnamon

A Wee Smidgen of ground ginger and/or nutmeg (optional)

1 1/2 C. Carrots, shredded

2 Apples, peeled & shredded (I used 1 big Gala apple, mostly with the skin but then I read that I was supposed to peel the apple so I peeled the last slice)

1/2 Cup Dried Cranberries (or you could use raisins which, personally, I really do not like one they are baked. They're gooshy)

1 Cup nuts if you have 'em. I had about 1/2 cups of finely chopped pecans so that's what I used.

3/4 C. Milk (I also added a splash of half and half for the extra bit of fat)

**1 to 2 tablespoons softened butter (officially not required but I added it)

2 eggs beaten

1 tsp Vanilla

Putting It Together:

Mix together the dry stuff, that's your flour, the flaxseed meal, the oat bran, brown sugar, baking soda and powder and salt, cinnamon and the ginger and nutmeg if you want that stuff. I put a very small amount of ginger and nutmeg. I put my index finger in the jar and balanced some of the spice on the end of my finger and tossed it in the bowl. Mix all of this together in a large bowl.

Stir in the shredded carrrots, apples, cranberries and the nuts.

Combine the milk, half and half, beaten eggs and vanilla.

Pour liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir until ingredients are moistened. Do
not over mix.

Fill muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake at 350 for 15 - 20 minutes. Mine needed 20 minutes. Makes about 15 muffins.

*Bran muffin ingredients are not $40. That was my grocery total.

**I added the splash of half and half and the bit of butter because I really couldn't believe these muffins would be moist enough without oil. I didn't want a dry muffin. But apparently ground flaxseed can be substituted for shortening or cooking oil at a ratio of 3 to 1 in baked goods. For example, 1 1/2 cups of flaxseed meal can replace 1/2 cup of butter, margarine or cooking oil in a recipe. Can you believe it? I'm still afraid to go there, hence the butter and cream.